Are you wondering why T2 mobile (formerly 9mobile) was left out in the nPerf Barometer mobile internet performance 2025 report for Nigeria?
Techeconomy Insight show the ranking is based on user-generated quality measurements, including download and upload speeds, latency and video streaming performance, from real devices across Nigeria.
When the 2025 edition was published, the report only included operators with a sufficient share of test data, focusing on networks that represent the majority of internet users nationwide.
According to the methodology described in coverage of the barometer:
nPerf excludes operators whose user test share falls below a minimum threshold, typically around 5% of total test traffic.
At the time of the report, MTN, Airtel and Globacom accounted for the overwhelming share of mobile internet subscriptions and testing data used to generate the performance ranking.
In contrast, Nigeria’s fourth operator, T2 Mobile, had a very small share of mobile internet subscriptions, reported at around 2.1 million active internet connections (~1.7–2.1 % market share) compared with tens of millions on MTN, Airtel and Glo.
Because this share was below the inclusion cut-off, nPerf did not have enough test data from 9mobile users to produce statistically meaningful performance metrics, and thus omitted it from the operator rankings.
Why T2 Mobile’s Test Share is So Low
Several factors help explain why T2’s test data was insufficient for inclusion:
Dramatic Subscriber Decline
T2 Mobile has suffered consistent subscriber losses over recent years, with tens of thousands porting out monthly as customers migrate to networks with better coverage and service quality.
Small Market Share
By late 2024–early 2025, T2 Mobile’s market share had fallen to under 2 % of Nigeria’s mobile subscriber base, far below the threshold held by MTN, Airtel and Globacom.
Service Quality Issues
Independent reports and user complaints have highlighted network disruptions and inconsistent service quality on T2 Mobile, which can reduce both data usage and the number of users conducting speed tests via analysis apps like nPerf.
Rebranding and Transition
T2 Mobile’s ongoing transformation, including its rebrand to T2 Mobile and strategic partnerships such as national roaming with MTN, reflects attempts to stabilise coverage and recover relevance, but at the time of the nPerf dataset these changes had not yet translated into a larger base of active internet users.
What This Means for the Market
T2 Mobile’s absence from the barometer should not be interpreted as a technical exclusion alone, it reflects deeper competitive dynamics in the Nigerian telecoms market:
The dominance of MTN, Airtel and Globacom in terms of network quality and subscriber base drives the bulk of measurable user internet performance.
Smaller operators struggle to generate the critical mass of user data needed for inclusion in independent performance studies.
Investors and industry watchers can view such reports as market share and user experience indicators, in addition to pure network performance rankings.
Simply put,
T2 was not featured because it simply did not generate enough user-based internet tests to meet nPerf’s reporting criteria.
The background of this story >>> here.
